The Kennedy files: Threats, sex parties?

"The late Senator Edward M. Kennedy lived under the constant threat of violent death, a burden he inherited from his slain brothers, according to FBI records released yesterday detailing hundreds of threats issued by hate groups or relayed by agency tipsters and police across the country," the Boston Globe says.

The Globe adds, "Kennedy’s FBI file, released yesterday, paints a vivid picture of the sometimes close, but often adversarial relationship that the Kennedy family had with the agency. Charged with protecting the Kennedys, the FBI also kept meticulous files on their political activities and their personal lives."

"The thousands of pages of Kennedy's FBI file made public earlier today show that the bureau played no official role in the investigation of the [drowning] incident [of Mary Jo Kopechne], ... But they do depict how the Nixon administration sought to use the bureau to gather incriminating evidence about Kopechne in an effort to damage Kennedy's reputation and political fortunes," the Boston Globe reports.

Sex parties? More from the Globe: "The sex parties at a swanky New York hotel may have involved the three Kennedy brothers, and included Marilyn Monroe, Sammy Davis Jr., and Frank Sinatra. Or, maybe not. Among the tantalizing but far-from-verifiable nuggets in Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s FBI file is one written in July 1965 suggesting that a New York socialite has 'considerable information concerning sex parties' that 'a number of persons participated [in] at different times.'"